Clinic specializes in voice disorders

You could say it’s one stop shopping for your voice. The Voice Clinic of Indiana is offering medical, surgical and therapeutic treatment for vocal issues.

After eight years with the IU hospital system, Dr. Stacey Halum decided there was no time like the present to open her own practice.

“When I came here eight years ago I was the first ENT doctor in the state who had done a laryngology fellowship – which specializes in voice disorders,” Halum said. “It’s a new specialty that has not been around long. I was at a stage in my life where I really wanted to provide a comprehensive clinic for patients. We have a neurologist come in once a week, a speech language pathologist five days a week, etc. We pretty much offer everything in one setting. It’s the way I was trained as a fellow, and I wanted to set that up for my patients.”

Halum started seeing patients in January at a temporary location and moved into the clinic space at 1185 W. Carmel Dr. in early April with a staff of six. A new laryngologist – Dr. Noah Parker – will join the staff after completing his fellowship at Harvard.

“Then we have a lot of other phenomenal people we are collaborating with to help improve patient care,” Halum said. “We want to give the immediate benefit of care all in one area – one stop shopping so to speak was our goal. We will have latest research plus the best of clinical care for voice disorders.”

When it comes to vocal issues – Halum said the most common problem is hoarseness.

“Sometimes it is not that severe but at a point they have no control over their voice – it’s fading by the end of the day,” she said. “Their quality of life is affected because they can’t communicate well with their spouse or on the phone. Sometimes, in trying to compensate for voice loss, they will strain so much that they start getting throat pain and finally go to the doctor.”

The cause can range from polyps to nodules to neurological issues or even cancer.

“If you have more than two weeks of hoarseness we recommend getting seen to make sure it’s not something dangerous,” Halum said.